Word Origin & History

teem "abound, swarm," O.E. teman (Mercian), tieman (W.Saxon) "give birth to, produce," from P.Gmc. *taumijanan, from PIE *deuk- "to lead" (see duke). Related to team in its now-obsolete O.E. sense of "family, brood of young animals." The meaning "be fertile, abound, swarm" is first recorded 1593; teeming in this sense is from 1715.

Example Sentences for teeming

Take China with her teeming millions, and ask why she has not peopled the world?

My brain in labour with dull rhyme,Hers teeming with the best!

New trains of ideas had been opened to him; his mind was teeming with suggestions.

Teeming with much that is ancient, she appears the embodiment of youth and beauty.

By this time the country south of the Ohio was teeming with a great restless population.

The teeming cloud of insects was a pest equal to that of the lice of Egypt.

Everywhere the grass grew thick and luxuriant; the quick earth was teeming with the germination of the dead below.

At last the flash came into that teeming brain like a stroke of lightning.

But the area east of the Singapore degree of longitude is teeming with opportunity for Panama cargoes.